Review Against the Sun by Kat Martin
It’s not in bodyguard Jake Cantrell’s job description to share his suspicions with his assignments. Beautiful executive Sage Dumont may be in charge, but Jake’s noton her payroll. As a former special forces marine, Jake trusts his gut, and it’s telling him there’s something off about a shipment arriving at Marine Drilling International. His instinct is aroused…in more ways than one.A savvy businesswoman, Sage knows better than to take some hired gun’s “hunch” as gospel. And yet she is learning not to underestimate the man her grandfather hired to protect her. Determined to prove Jake wrong, Sage does some digging of her own and turns up deadly details she was never meant to see.
Drawn into a terrifying web of lies and deceit—and into feelings they can’t afford to explore—what Jake and Sage uncover may be frighteningly worse than they ever imagined.
Ms. Martin has this amazing ability to create entirely believable male hero’s in contemporary romantic suspense novels that feel utterly human. They are so realistic in their insequrities and in their strengths, they seem entirely real as if she’d met them, studied them, gotten into their heads and then made them come to life. One of the best parts about Ms. Martin’s writing is her ability to accurately communicate their problems, these strong alpha hero’s problems with PTSD, loss, guilt, remorse, insequrity dealing with a woman who make more than them, their pushiness, whatever, taking that, and making these characters truly well rounded with flaws and everything, yet not killing the fantasy by making them the shlubby men we all ready know. Its a fine line but Ms. martin walks it well.
Especially well with Jake Cantrell in Against the Sun. He’s a bodyguard who has been hired without Sage’s prior knowledge to guide her through what could be tense negotioations with a Middle Eastern Sheikh (tired of this trope anyone), but while they are getting ready to negotiate there is the small matter of men trying to kill sage, the Sheiks daughter running away and lots of drugs being brought into and out of the country on his pipelines. Yep never short for action here.
Sage on the other hand is…. boring. She’s the moral compass of this ship and she says and does all the right things in these situations, tempts Jake just enough, then does exactly what we expect her to and thats part of the reason I find her so uninspiring and boring because everything she does is expected. Every move she makes is entirely predictcable and its, well its boring. So whatever. She bores me and its a shame because this could have been a FANTASTIC novel if Sage had slightly bigger cojones. There were some scenes toward the end when she is going up against Jake and the Sheikh where she stands her ground admirably and there were some sections she had some humor and brevity that got a reluctant chuckle, but I wanted her to be fiesty. A firecracker with jake and a cool businesswoman in the boardroom, and I got a diet version of both of those.
The plot was magnificent. A stunning thriller that kept me interested and on the edge of my seat the whole time, yet I was also slightly detached. I wanted something differeent than what i got and though this was entertaining, it wasn’t as engrossing as i thought it could be.
Overall Rating: C+
